Door fastener



R. J- OLANDER DOOR FASTENER Nov. 2, 19.48.

5 Sheets-Sheet 1 Filed Nov. 29, 1.946

l'nv'ew ir: 18070023 .7 Olanfler Nov. 2, 1948. J, OLANDER 2,452,677

DOOR FASTENER Filed NOV. 29, 1946 3 Sheets-Sheet 2 Ji'oZcmcZ I OZamZr.

Nov. 2, 1948. I J, CLANDE'R' 2,452,677

I DOOR FASYTENER Filed Nov. 29, 1946 s sheets-sheet s fioland JOZawdeT.5y MM Patented Nov. 2, 1948 DOOR FASTENER Roland-J. Oiander, Chicago,.Ill., assignor to. W; H.

'Miner, Inc., Chicago, Ill., acorporation of Delaware ApplicationNovember 29, 1946, Serial No. 712,835

3 Claims.

This invention relatesto improvements in door fasteners, for hingeddoors.

One object of the invention is to provide a door fastener of the rotarybar type having keeper engaging crank members cooperating with fixedkeepers, especially adapted for swinging or hinged doors of the typeemployed on automobile trucks and railway refrigerator cars constructedand so designed as to eiiectively compensate for misalignment of thekeeper engaging crank means and keepers on account of misapplication ofthe parts or due tothe doors becomng canted in service as, for example,by weaving action of theca r;

more specific object of the invention is to provide in a door fastenerof the rotary bar type having crank members at opposite ends, the crankpins of which cooperate with keepers provided with cam slots, auxiliarymeans in the form of extensions on the crank pins for preventingdisengagement of the keeper engaging crank members from the keepers,which would otherwise occur when the keeper engaging parts and keepersbecome disaligned, due to unavoidable canting of the door.

Otherobjects of the invention will more clearly appear from thedescription and claims hereinafter following;

In the accompanying drawings forminga part of this specification, Figure1 is an elevational View of a portion of the rear wall of an automobiletruck provided with a pair of hinged doors, illustrating my improvementsin connection therewith, said view being broken to accommodate the sameto the sheet of the drawing. Figure 2 is an enlarged, elevational Viewof the lower keeper engaging member of the fastener and cooperatingkeeper shown in Figure 1. Figure 3 is a horizontal sectional view,corresponding substantially to the line 33 of Figure 2 with the truckwall and the doors omitted. Figure 4 is an elevational view of Figure 3,looking in the direction of the arrows 44. Figure 5 is a view, similarto Figure 3, but showing the keeper engaging member rotated to adifferent position. Figure 6 is an elevational view of the lower endportion of the keeper engaging member shown in Figure 2. Figure 7 is aview. similar to Figure 2, showing the doors slightly canted, and theposition assumed by the lower keeper engaging member under thiscondition; Figure 8 is a horizontal, sectional View, correspondingsubstantially to the-line 8-8 of Figure 7, the truck wall. and the.doors being; omitted In said drawings, it indicates a portion of therear wall of an automobile truck provided with a door opening I I,closed by the usual doors l2 and I3. The doors i2 and i3 are supportedalong their vertical outer edges by the usual hinge members Ml4, whichare of well-known design. As is understood by those skilled in this art,the hinged doors l2 and I3 engage each other at the meeting edges, theedge of the door I2, which is the door last closed, overlapping theadiacent edge of the door 13.

My improved door fastener comprises broadly top and bottom keepers A andB secured to the truck Wall iii; a vertically disposed, rotary operating bar C mounted on one of the pair of hinged doors; top and bottomkeeper engaging crank members D and E on the bar; top and bottom bearingbrackets F and G and an intermediate guide bracket I-I secured to thedoor and carrying the operating bar; and an operating handle lever J forrotating the bar.

The keepers A and B are of similar design, except ashereinaiter pointedout. Each keeper is in the form of a blocklike casting having securingears i5-i5 at opposite ends thereof by which it is fixed to the wall Iiiof the truck. The block of each keeper member is provided with adiagonally extending cam slot !6.

The upper and lower keepers A and B are reversely' arranged, that is,the keeper A is inverted with respect to the keeper B, the slot of thekeeper A being open at the bottom of the keeper and. that of the keeperB being open at the top. The slot of each keeper is also opena-ttheouter end. The opposite vertical side walls of each slot, whichare indicated by H and it, are parallel and are connected by a roundedinner end wall E9. The wall i8, wh ch forms the back wall of the sloti6, is longer than the wall ll, as clearly-shown in Figures 3, 5, and 8.The bottom section of the slot it of the keeper B is enlarged,asindicated at 2B, in Figures 2, 3, 4, 5,

"1 and 8, and the upper section of the slot 56 of the keeper A issimilarly enlarged, said enlarged portion of the latter being alsoindicated by 20. The enlarged portion 2B of each slot is defined byparallel, frontand rear walls 2i and 22 and a-curved inner end wall 23,the front wall 2! being continuous and in the same plane with the wall17, but extending inwardly beyond the inner end of the latter to thecurved inner end wall 23. which is concentric with the wall 59, butlaterally offset therefrom. The rear wall 22 is parallel to the wall 18,but oiiset outwardly therefrom, as clearly shown in Figures 3, .4, 5,and 8; The slot I6 of the keeper B is closed at the bottom by a wall 24and the corresponding slot iii of the keeper A is closed at the top by asimilar wall, which is also indicated by 24. As shown in Figure 1, thetop and bottom keepers have their slots in vertical alignment tocooperate with the top and bottom crank members D and E of the bar C.

The rotary operating bar C is preferably of rectangular, transversecross section and has end members 25-45 secured to the top and bottomends thereof, each end member being forked to embrace the bar atopposite sides. Each of the end members has a keeper engaging crankmember formed at the outer extremity thereof, the upper member 25 beingprovided with the crank member D and the lower member 25 with the crankmember E. The bar is rotatably supported by the bearing brackets F and Gand the guide bracket H which are secured to the door l2. The bar C, endmembers 25, and the brackets F, G and H are all well known in this art,and therefore need no further detailed description, however, it might bepointed out that the forked portions of the end members are riveted tothe bar C and that the portions of the end members intermediate theforked portions and the crank members thereof are of cylindrical shapeand journaled in the bearing openings of the brackets F and G.

Each crank member D and E comprises a horizontally disposed, radiallyextending crank arm 26 provided with a vertically disposed crank pin 2'!at its outer end of cylindrical cross section, which is flattened at oneside. as indicated at 28. The crank pin of each member D and E isengageable within the slot I5 of the corresponding keeper and is of sucha length as to extend into the enlarged portion 28 of said slot, asclearly shown in Figures 2, 4, and 7. At its outer end portion, thecrank pin 21 is provided with a radially projecting finger or flange 29,which is of the contour shown in Figures3, 5, and 8. The finger orflange 29 has a flat front edge face, which is indicated by 36. The face30 forms a continuation of the flat face 28 of the crank pin and is inalignment therewith. The rear edge of the finger or flange 29 presents acurved face 3! which merges at one end with the curved outer surface ofthe crank pin 21 and at the other end with a sharply rounded end face 32at the rear extremity of the flange, connecting with the flat face 35.

The bar C is operated by the handle lever J, which is of the characterusually employed in door operators of this type and which may be lockedagainst displacement by a latch 33 ordinarily employed for this purposeto maintain the door in fastened and closed position.

As is well known by those skilled in this art, to open and close thedoor l2, the bar C is rotated by the handle lever J to cam the dooroutwardly or inwardly through the action of the crank pins 2"l2l of themembers D and E in the slots l6l 6 of the keepers A and B.

Assuming that the doors are fastened in the closed position shown inFigures 1 to 4, inclusive, the flat face 28 of each crank pin is in flatfaced engagement with the wall I! of the cam slot iii of thecorresponding keeper, and the flat edge face 30 of the finger or flangeof the crank pin' in contra-clockwise direction, as seen in Figure 3,thereby disengaging the crank pins from the walls lli'l of the keepersand bringing the same into engagement with the rear walls l 8-! 8 of thecam slots, as shown in Figure 5, to cam the door outwardly duringfurther rotation of the bar. During this action of the crank member inforcing 1e door I2 open, the finger or flange 29 thereof swings withinthe enlarged portion 20 of the slot 55, said enlarged portion providingample clearance for the same. To force the door [2 closed, the bar C andthe crank members D and E are rotated in a reverse, or clockwisedirection, as viewed in Figure 5, thereby entering the crank pin 2? ofeach crank member into the slot l6 of the corresponding keeper, andentering the radial finger or flange 29 of said pin into the enlargedportion 2c of said slot. As the bar is rotated in clockwise direction,the crank member is swung through the position shown in Figure 5 to theposition shown in Figure 3, thereby camming the door tightly closed byengagement of the crank pin with the front wall I! of the slot I6. Thecrank pin thus normally serves to lock the door in fastened and closedposition. However, should the parts of the mechanism be out of truealignment through the doors having become displaced, as illustrated inFigure '7, that is, slightly canted with respect to the body of thetruck, the lip or flange 25 of the crank pin serves as a safety deviceto assure proper locking of the door, the extension formed by the lip orflange 29 of the crank pin still being engaged within the slot of thekeeper although the crank pin proper has lost its contact with the outerwall I! of said slot. Under t'iese conditions, the crank members stillhold the doors locked in closed position by engagement of the flat facesfill-30 of the flanges 29--29 of the crank pins with the flat facedcontinuations 2 !--25 of the walls ll'-I 'i. Not only is the properlockin of the door l2 in closed and fastened condition thus assured whenthe doors are no longer in proper alignment, but accidental springingopen of the locked doors, due to we ving action of the doors in service,is also positively prevented. As will be further evident, the flanges 29of the keeper engaging means also compensate for misplacement of theparts of the door fastener in application to the truck body and door,that is, the flanges 29 will still operatively engage the keepers evenif the latter or the operating bar has been erroneously applied inposition to one side of that required to provide full operativeengagement between the crank pins and keepers.

I claim:

1. In a door fastener for a hinged door of a container, the combinationwith a fixed keeper on said container, said keeper having a cam slotdefined by spaced, vertically disposed, front and rear walls, said frontwall facing the door; of a rotary operating bar mounted on the door; acrank member rotatable with said bar, said crank member including acrank pin engageable in said cam slot, said crank pin being engageablewith said front wall to force the door closed; and a radially extendingflange on said crank pin engageable with said front wall to hold thedoor closed when the parts of the mechanism become disaligned.

2. In a door fastener for a hinged door of a container, the combinationwith a fixed keeper on said container, said keeper being provided with ahorizontally extending, diagonal cam slot having one of its walls facingsaid door; of a vertically disposed, rotary operating bar mounted on thedoor,

a crank arm extending from said bar; a crank pin at the outer end ofsaid crank armj and a radial finger on the crank pin, said crank pin andradial finger of said crank arm being movable within the slot of thecorresponding keeper and engageable with said wall of the slot to camthe door closed and fasten the same in closed position.

3. In a door fastener for a hinged door of a. container, the combinationwith a fixed keeper having a cam slot therein inclined away from thedoor, a portion of said slot being of enlarged width; of a rotaryoperating bar mounted on the door; a crank arm on said bar; a crank pinat the outer end of said arm, said crank pin being flattened on oneside; a radially extending finger on said pin at the outer end thereof,said finger having a straight edge face aligned with and REFERENCESCITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Name Date Haseltine Oct. 28, 1941 Number

